Sunday, March 31, 2013

Fables: Animal Farm

Hmm, it strikes me that Animal
Farm, although quite a nice bookend to Rose
Red, is rather superfluous in the scheme of things—I don’t feel like I
actually learned that much that I didn’t know, or that I couldn’t extrapolate
when I jumped on board at volume 7 or 8.Such is life when you read Fables out
of order.In any case, I think the
complex heights that the series reaches several years down the line are
necessarily more impressive than this second volume, the first with Mark
Buckingham on board, and character design is still trying to be ironed out.

Rose Red begins her reform, Snow White escapes from Shere
Khan, I finally find out why Colin the pig’s head is on a stick, Goldilocks
makes her first (annoying) appearance, and people start to wonder if something
isn’t going on between Snow and Bigby Wolf.I have to say that Buckingham’s anthropomorphic animals here are
incredibly well done, especially the pigs and the bears.Reynard the Fox—who had a small throwaway moment
in Rose Red—has quite a heroic turn
here.Other things that bear fruit later
are sown:the Forsworn Knight, for
one.